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Tag: MAHA

  • Fact-checking Casey DeSantis on weed killer in bread

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    Should Floridians be worried about weed killer in their bread?

    Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, who helps lead the state’s version of the Make America Healthy Again movement, recently said the Healthy Florida First initiative tested popular bread brands, revealing “triple-digit” levels of the herbicide glyphosate.

    “Glyphosate is a weed killer,” DeSantis said. “It’s the main ingredient you find in Roundup and other weed-killing brands. It’s designed to kill plants, it is not meant to be eaten.” 

    The group has released findings of “toxins” in food products such as baby formula and candy, publicizing its results to warn people about purportedly dangerous chemicals in everyday products.

    DeSantis said warning labels on products containing glyphosate include emergency instructions for exposure, “and make clear these products are not meant for people to touch, not meant to be in the food and certainly not meant to be consumed, and yet here we are today with these findings.”

    But the minute amount of glyphosate DeSantis’ group reported finding in bread isn’t dangerous for people to consume.

    The highest glyphosate level the group listed is 191 parts per billion. That might sound scary, but it’s only a tiny fraction of the trace amount of glyphosate the government says food can safely contain. 

    Chemicals in food — even those found in weed killers — are not necessarily harmful, experts said. Today’s food tests are sensitive enough to detect minuscule amounts of different substances. And that’s how much glyphosate was identified in the Health Florida First bread tests: trace amounts. 

    “Based on the weight of evidence, these are not particularly high or dangerous levels of glyphosate,” said Norbert Kaminski, a toxicologist and director of the Center for Research on Ingredient Safety at Michigan State University. 

    The Healthy Florida First website lacks that context and DeSantis doesn’t explain what the numbers mean. 

    When we asked the governor’s office about the first lady’s remarks, a spokesperson directed PolitiFact to the Florida Department of Health, which did not reply to our request for comment. 

    Healthy Florida First says the department conducts its food tests using independent, third-party labs. The group so far hasn’t publicly identified those labs, its testing protocols, or methodology. 

    How is glyphosate regulated in the U.S. food supply?

    Glyphosate is widely used in agriculture to control weeds and grass, which is why trace amounts find their way into so many food products. 

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration testing has shown pesticide residue in over 60% of U.S. food samples, but the vast majority of the samples — more than 97% — contained residue within federal regulatory limits.

    The FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency both regulate pesticides in the U.S. food supply. 

    Looking at factors such as a pesticide’s toxicity and how it breaks down over time, the EPA determines how much pesticide residue food can contain without harming people. The FDA enforces those limits. PolitiFact asked the EPA about Florida’s glyphosate findings but did not receive a response.

    Foods with unsafe levels of glyphosate could be seized by the federal government, the EPA says, and the breads tested by Florida were not. 

    How does the glyphosate found in Florida testing compare with safety standards?

    Healthy Florida First says its tests, which evaluated popular bread brands such as Nature’s Own and Wonder Bread, found glyphosate levels ranging from non-detectable to 191.04 parts per billion.

    Parts per billion measures extremely low concentrations 1,000 times smaller than parts per million. For example, one part per billion equals 1 cent in $10 million or 1 second in 32 years.

    The amount of glyphosate Florida found is nowhere near the EPA’s limit for the substance’s residue in food, which is up to 30 parts per million — or 30,000 parts per billion. 

    Even if a person weighing 150 pounds ate about 18,850 slices of bread with glyphosate levels at 200 parts per billion, every day, it would still be within a glyphosate consumption range that’s considered safe.

    How is glyphosate in food different from glyphosate in herbicides?

    DeSantis cited product labels that warn about accidental exposure to chemicals such as glyphosate. 

    “There is a major disconnect between a chemical labeled as unsafe to ingest and its quiet presence in everyday food like bread,” she said.

    But experts told PolitiFact it’s misleading to compare product warning labels for raw or concentrated chemicals — like those found in pesticides you can buy at a hardware store — with the trace amounts that might be found in food. 

    The concentration of glyphosate in commercial weed killers, for example, is estimated to be tens of thousands to millions of times higher than the traces in some foods after environmental degradation and food processing.

    The chemical warning labels typically indicate hazards or risks from direct, high-level exposure to these concentrated substances, such as swallowing a pesticide solution or having it sprayed in your eyes.

    Take trisodium phosphate. Google it, and you’ll get ads for heavy-duty cleaning products used to prep walls before painting. We previously reported that warning labels say direct contact with trisodium phosphate powder can be irritating to eyes and skin and poisonous if exposed in large amounts.

    But it is also an ingredient in cereals and other processed foods, including cheeses and baked goods. In small amounts, the FDA and the European Food Safety Authority say it’s fine in food. It controls pH levels and acts as a leavening agent to make food fluffier.

    Experts have consistently said “the dose makes the poison,” meaning the toxicity of a substance in large, raw amounts doesn’t necessarily translate to it being dangerous in broken down, minute amounts.

    “The level of exposure is what matters,” Kaminski said. “Every chemical, including water and table salt can be toxic at a high enough dose, but we don’t typically add warning labels for these.”

    PolitiFact Staff Writer Grace Abels contributed to this report. 

    RELATED: Is it toxic? Why you should be wary of the internet’s ‘scary ingredient’ warnings

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  • Florida finds heavy metals in more than half of baby formulas tested

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    Credit: Shutterstock

    Florida officials on Friday warned parents about certain brands of infant formula, saying tests conducted by the state showed potentially unsafe levels of heavy metals.

    First Lady Casey DeSantis said the state tested 24 infant formulas and found that 16 contained heavy metal or chemicals. The samples were obtained through a variety of means, including ordering online, to make sure that it was “not a one-off shipment.”

    The state has placed the testing results on a website called exposingfoodtoxins.com and those results show that the heavy metals included mercury, arsenic, lead, and cadmium. The brands tested include several manufactured by national industry leaders.

    Infant formulas are not regulated by the state, but Casey DeSantis said it is important Florida and other states do independent testing to “drive accountability.”

    “Parents should not be expected to verify the integrity of products on their own,” she said.

    The push by Florida to test infant formula comes several months after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the Food and Drug Administration to look at ingredients used in infant formula. Before he joined the administration of President Donald Trump, Kennedy promised to look at whether there were toxic metals in infant formula.

    The first lady discussed the infant formula testing during an event in Bartow that also featured Gov. Ron DeSantis and State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.

    In his remarks, Ladapo contended the results produced an “understatement of the risk” because infants can be subject to greater harm given their size, weight, and developmental stage.

    He added that, of the items tested, “mercury is probably one of the most toxic things you can put in a person’s body.”

    Gov. DeSantis only briefly touched on the infant formula testing results, but called the effort part of Florida’s efforts to bring “transparency” to medicine and food. He did briefly repeat his support for a bill that would bar physicians from refusing to treat someone if that person has refused to get vaccinated.

     

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    The state says the testing results show that the heavy metals included mercury, arsenic, lead, and cadmium.

    The 34-page bill would presume certain non-citizens are at fault in car accidents, severely restrict their employment, and prevent Florida banks from loaning them money

    HB 991 is sponsored by state Reps. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, and Dana Trabulsy, R- Fort Pierce



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    Christine Sexton, Florida Phoenix
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  • RFK Jr.’s barnyard ringtone interrupts White House MAHA briefing, sparks laughs

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    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    A White House press briefing focused on Make America Healthy Again policies briefly paused Wednesday when Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s phone went off, showcasing a duck quacking ringtone. 

    “I’m sorry,” Kennedy said as he paused his remarks at the White House press briefing’s podium as he silenced his phone. His ringtone blared ducks quacking, sparking jokes from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and laughter from reporters. 

    Kennedy joined the press briefing flanked by other health leaders within the administration to unveil new dietary guidelines focused on Americans eating “real foods” and not ultra-processed meals in a move aimed at addressing chronic disease and childhood illnesses. 

    TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO UNVEIL NEW DIETARY GUIDELINES AS FDA PLANS SWEEPING 2026 FOOD OVERHAUL

    Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s duck-quacking ringtone briefly interrupted the press briefing Jan. 7, 2025.  (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

    As Kennedy’s phone rang out with ducks quacking, Rollins quipped: “Duck is also high in protein. Duck is a good thing to eat everybody.”

    The press briefing broke out into chuckles before Kennedy got back to business and continued discussing his team’s MAHA efforts, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s overhaul of the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule, which reduces the number of routine immunizations recommended for children.

    RFK JR’S DYE-FREE FOOD VISION BLOCKED BY OBAMA-APPOINTED JUDGE

    Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and self-avowed lover of nature. Before his confirmation to serve in the federal government, Kennedy was well-known on social media for posting videos showing off wild critters he came across on hikes in Southern California or videos showing off his falconry skills. 

    RFK Jr. hiking

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hikes with one of his two Gordon Setter dogs, Ronan, in the Santa Monica Mountains, in Los Angeles, March 18, 2024.  (Mike Blake/Reuters)

    The press conference unveiled an updated, inverted food pyramid built on meat, fats, fruits and vegetables. While whole grains are now at the narrow bottom of the inverted pyramid. 

    “The new guidelines recognize that whole, nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower health care costs,” Kennedy said. “Protein and healthy fats are essential, and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines. We are ending the war on saturated fats.”

    RFK JR LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO SCHOOL FOR ALLEGED VACCINATION OF CHILD WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT

    Karoline Leavitt and HHS officials

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a briefing with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins at the White House, Jan. 7, 2026, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press)

    Kennedy added that if foreign adversaries wanted to throttle and weaken the U.S., they’d “addict us to ultra-processed foods.”

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    “If a foreign adversary sought to destroy the health of our children, cripple our economy, to weaken our national security, there would be no better strategy than to addict us to ultra-processed foods,” he said.

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  • What a Diabetes Diagnosis Taught Me About MAHA

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    Photo: Andrew Burke-Stevenson/Boston Globe/Getty Images

    One morning in late September, I drank a cup of coffee without sugar and ate half an English muffin for breakfast. Boring choices, but I like routines; I always drink coffee in the morning, and I always drink it with some milk. If I eat breakfast, I don’t eat much. I didn’t think it mattered — I still wouldn’t, if I had any choice, but two hours later, a medical assistant pricked my fingertip and told me that my blood glucose was 330 milligrams per deciliter. That seems bad, I thought. A few minutes later, I learned my A1C was also much too high, which supported one undesirable conclusion: I have type 2 diabetes, like my mother and millions of other people in the United States, and I’ve likely had it for a while. The doctor sent me home with a sample continuous glucose monitor along with prescriptions for metformin and Mounjaro, a popular GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist. The following morning, I checked the data from my CGM and saw that my fasting glucose had reached 400 milligrams per deciliter. I did not eat an English muffin.

    Still, there is good news: Mounjaro and metformin are effective medications. I know that from my doctor, the scientific literature, and my CGM. A month after getting diagnosed, my blood glucose has declined to safer levels, and the disease frightens me less than it initially did. Pragmatism has taken over. I already have mild neuropathy in my feet, and I’d rather it didn’t get worse. If I want to feel all my toes again, the solution is medication, a better diet, and exercise. There isn’t an easy way to reverse the symptoms of type 2 diabetes, and I knew that the day I found out I had it. I also knew that my illness wasn’t my fault — or I thought I did. People develop type 2 diabetes for a combination of reasons, like a sedentary lifestyle and an unhealthy diet, but genetics matter, too, and I have a family history of the disease. Also, so what? Nobody deserves a life-threatening illness, and a medical diagnosis is not a moral failure. I’ve never thought I should blame my mother for getting sick.

    Still, I began to berate myself. I thought about my meals — the small ones, the big ones, the occasional snack — and wondered when I’d crossed the line. Was it the Coke I drank for my headaches? Those English muffins? I told my husband that I felt stupid. I should’ve taken more Pilates classes, eaten fewer carbs, ordered more salads. My husband, an ex-Catholic, told me to be less of a Protestant. Shame has its place in the world, but not here, in this conversation or this illness. He’s right, but in the Make America Healthy Again era, I find it difficult to silence that angry voice in my head. Every time I scroll through Instagram, I see ads and videos that promote dubious supplements and fad diets — and then there is the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of it all. Diabetes is a fixation for our Health and Human Services secretary, who believes America suffers from a “chronic-disease epidemic” that can be resolved through better nutrition. “Sugar is poison,” he said this year, and it is “giving us a diabetes crisis.” Conditions like diabetes deserve more attention than measles, he claimed amid a deadly outbreak of the infectious disease. Pharma companies want to sell GLP-1s like Mounjaro because “we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs,” Kennedy told Fox News last year, adding, “If we just gave good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman, and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight.”

    The MAHA ethos contains an element of truth, which makes it even more insidious. Our choices do influence our physical condition, whether we’re at risk for type 2 diabetes or not, but we are also more complicated than MAHA admits. A woman who lives in a food desert needs more from her government than nutrition education; she can’t simply bootstrap her way out of medical danger. Neither can I despite my relative security. By the time I found out I was diabetic, I was too sick to manage my blood sugar through diet and exercise alone, and I may need medication for the rest of my life. My health depends on my salary and my health insurance, not my choices alone, and that’s the reality most of us live with. Instead, MAHA prefers a commonplace American myth, and so does my inner scold: Fix your mind, make better choices, and health will follow. Self-mastery is free-market logic in another guise, and it won’t make Americans healthy at all.

    If the key to health lies in the mind, our “chronic disease” crisis is more spiritual than material. We are making ourselves sick, so we must heal ourselves. When MAHA attempts any structural diagnosis, it complains of big pharma and big agriculture, but individual choices are still the principal focus. Industry is bad because it encourages bad decision-making; it provides shortcuts, like antidepressants or GLP-1s, so we can avoid the hard work of good health. The underlying theme is “mind-power,” as scholar Kate Bowler wrote in Blessed, her 2018 history of the prosperity gospel. Mind-power and “its discourse of control and efficacy” is “centered on the role of thought and speech,” according to Bowler, who traced it back to a Victorian-age religious awakening in American life. “Self-mastery became an art and occupation, as people sought to consolidate the era’s advances with improvements to their own lives,” she wrote. Faith healers promised miraculous cures to believers who paid their tithes and said the right prayers to the right version of God.

    In an extreme case, Mary Baker Eddy “discovered” Christian Science and taught her followers that all matter “is infinitely malleable through the power of mind,” as the journalist and ex–Church of Christ, Scientist member Caroline Fraser explained in God’s Perfect Child. Disease was a mental error that should be rectified by good thoughts. Christian Scientists reject most medical interventions and rely, often, on Church practitioners, who say they guide physical healing through the pursuit of spiritual truth. The results can be deadly, as Fraser showed in her book. Children have died because of their parents’ religious convictions. “The history of the United States of America is a history of religious sects that have sanctified the power of self,” Fraser argued, which is hard to dispute.

    Now, mind-power as a concept is more powerful than Christian Science or even organized religion, and it is embedded deeply in our national bedrock. Though MAHA is an eclectic perspective, and most who fall under its umbrella accept some medical intervention, its rejection of expertise and reliance on the self are familiar enough. When Kennedy conflates type 2 diabetes with its type 1 counterpart, as he has done in the past, he makes a scientific error that is shaped by his ideology. When he says in the same interview that “juvenile diabetes and prediabetes” can “be reversed completely by changing diet,” he makes a different mistake for the same reasons. Kennedy isn’t asking us to pray, but he is telling us to purify ourselves, and, like Eddy, he takes that moralism and calls it science.

    MAHA shifts responsibility for health and well-being onto the individual, and that too is an old trick. Mind-power may emphasize thought, but it still requires some labor from believers, who may depend on objects and ritualized behavior to attract health and wealth or dispel spiritual and mental attacks. Bowler wrote that Creflo Dollar, the prosperity-gospel preacher, once “advised the saints to cure poverty with dollar bills hidden in their shoes.” Kennedy and Martin Makary, the FDA commissioner, recommend wearable health technologies, like my CGM. Unlike a dollar bill inside a shoe, a CGM can have a real purpose, but that also depends on who’s wearing it. Right now, I use a sample Dexcom G7. A sensor in my left arm takes a reading every five minutes and feeds that information into an app on my phone. If my blood sugar gets too low or too high, an alarm sounds and I can take action. Most people don’t need a CGM, but Makary assigns the device a near-talismanic power: Make it widely available and users can ward off a dreadful fate. “Why are we holding these tools to help people empower them with knowledge about their health until after they’re sick?” he said during his Senate confirmation hearing.

    Donald Trump’s surgeon-general nominee, Casey Means, founded the Levels app, which connects to a CGM and warns users if they’re experiencing a glucose “spike.” This is not as helpful as it sounds. Blood sugar always rises after a meal and returns to baseline sometime later, and there’s no evidence that spikes lead to health problems in most people, according to a recent story from The Cut. Levels may promise a path to well-being, but that’s marketing, not science. The app merely creates busywork for whoever is using it, and it relies on mind-power. Levels bombards the average person with information they don’t need so they can adjust habits that may not require correction. Once they’re convinced of their own inner failures, an “expert” steps in with a fix. The app’s backers include Mark Hyman, a celebrity in the pseudoscientific field of functional medicine. Hyman’s views on GLP-1 drugs are mixed at best; for blood-sugar control, he once recommended Himalayan Tartary-buckwheat-sprout powder, an unproven supplement.

    MAHA sells a seductive idea: Take this powder, wear this device, or use this app and you’ll become the captain of your own body and the master of your own future. The implications are grim — if you get sick anyway, you’ve failed, and you are rightly on your own. “By tying health outcomes to individual choices and digital self-surveillance, MAHA policies risk making healthcare less equitable and overall, less effective,” the writer Scott Gavura observed at Science-Based Medicine. “Unproven technologies” can feel empowering, he added, but in practice they divert “attention away from public health interventions that actually work, like vaccinations, nutrition assistance, and access to primary care.” Mind-power and self-mastery are useful concepts to the White House and the rapacious capitalism it worships. Why should anyone care about type 2 diabetes or what it does to the people who have it? Just eat less pizza.

    Here’s a little secret about type 2 diabetes (it’s not really a secret): The disease is expensive. I’ve already spent hundreds of dollars on co-pays, prescriptions, and supplies, and I still don’t know if my insurance plan will cover the Dexcom G7 that I’ve been sampling. If it doesn’t and I want to keep using the device, I’ll likely pay hundreds more out of pocket every month. My insurance does cover a different CGM, the FreeStyle Libre 3, but a month’s supply still costs me $77. A lot of people with diabetes forgo a CGM and track their blood sugar with a blood-glucose meter and finger sticks, but I need both thanks to a genetic quirk. I was born with a hereditary red-blood-cell disorder, which makes my case more complicated to manage; thank you, God, for your intelligent design. At least I have insurance, a decent salary, and a reliable work schedule, so I can keep up with my doctor’s appointments. I’m a union member, which provides a level of security that I would otherwise lack. And I live in a neighborhood where I can walk to the nearest grocery store and choose from a variety of fresh vegetables.

    My prognosis is good because I have material advantages that many people lack. According to one analysis from GoodRx, people pay an average of $2,712 per year to self-manage their blood glucose, whether they have insurance or not. That figure includes a blood-glucose monitor, lancets, and test strips but not a CGM. Costs may be higher or lower depending on the specifics of a person’s treatment and their socioeconomic circumstances. For uninsured and underinsured Americans, test strips alone “could add up to thousands of dollars a year,” the New York Times reported in 2019. Out-of-pocket costs are higher for Americans with type 1 diabetes, one study found, but as I’ve learned, type 2 is not exactly affordable, either, and the expense can make it more difficult to manage the condition while preventing future complications. Self-mastery only gets us so far. The choices we make depend in part on the decisions of others, including policy-makers who allow inequality to flourish owing to inaction or malice. Research cited by the CDC says that “adults who experience food insecurity are 2 to 3 times more likely to have type 2 diabetes.” If you’re poor and can’t afford healthy food and a safe place to live, your health tends to suffer. I’ve seen that at home in southwest Virginia, a rural and predominantly white area, but the crisis is widespread and pronounced among members of some racial minority groups. Inequality helps explain why Black Americans develop type 2 diabetes at much higher rates, as do Latinos, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans. In MAHA logic, people of color are more likely to get type 2 diabetes because something’s wrong with their character, their minds, and it’s DEI to say otherwise.

    The MAHA prescription mostly ignores reality because it must. Universal health care would violate its deepest conviction, which is that people who get sick deserve to be punished for it. When Senator Bernie Sanders asked Kennedy if he thought health care is a human right, he demurred. Health care is not a right like free speech is a right, he said, because “if you smoke cigarettes for 20 years and you get cancer, you … you are now taking from the pool,” draining valuable resources. Now that he’s in power, he and the Trump administration have done nothing to make America healthier than usual. Nutrition experts say that MAHA’s favorite solutions, like the removal of high-fructose corn syrup, synthetic dyes, and seed oils from our food, ignore riskier ingredients in ultraprocessed items. Kennedy will soon release new dietary guidelines urging Americans to eat foods high in saturated fat, but as MedPage Today has reported, there’s no real evidence to support the recommendation. Trump has said he wants to lower the cost of GLP-1 agonists, but he also lies, and Mehmet Oz of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has only uttered vague assurances that Medicare will negotiate better prices for the drugs. On Friday, the Washington Post said the average Obamacare premium will rise by 30 percent next year, based on rates set by Oz’s agency and the probable “expiration of pandemic-era subsidies.”

    My inner scold is quieter now, and in its place, there is rage — not just for myself but for my mother, who has struggled sometimes to afford diabetes care, and for people I do not know. A society can become so obsessed with the self that an individual life no longer matters.

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    Sarah Jones

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  • RFK’s HHS probes chemtrails falsehood, weather manipulation

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    While plowing a wheat field in rural Washington state in the 1990s, William Wallace spotted a gray plane overhead that he believed was releasing chemicals to make him sick. The rancher began to suspect that all white vapor trails from aircraft might be dangerous.

    He shared his concern with reporters, acknowledging it sounded a little like “The X Files,” a science fiction television show.

    Academics cite Wallace’s story as one of the catalysts behind a fringe concept that has spread among adherents to the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement and is gaining traction at the highest levels of the federal government. Its treatment as a serious issue underscores that under President Donald Trump, unscientific ideas have unusual power to take hold and shape public health policy.

    The concept posits that airplane vapor trails, or contrails, are really “chemtrails” containing toxic substances that poison people and the terrain. Another version alleges planes or devices are being deployed by the federal government, private companies, or researchers to trigger big weather changes, such as hurricanes, or to alter the Earth’s climate, emitting hazardous chemicals in the process.

    Several Republican lawmakers and leaders in the Trump administration remain convinced the concepts are legitimate, though scientists have sought to discredit such claims.

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to investigate climate and weather control, and is expected to create a task force that will recommend possible federal action, according to a former agency official, an internal agency memo obtained by KFF Health News and a consultant who helped with the memo.

    The plans, along with comments by top Republican lawmakers, show how rumors and conspiracy theories can gain an air of legitimacy due to social media and a political climate infused with falsehoods, some political scientists and researchers say.

    “When we have low access to information or low trust in our sources of information, a lot of times we turn to our peer groups, the groups we are members of and we define ourselves by,” said Timothy Tangherlini, a folklorist and professor of information at the University of California-Berkeley. He added that the government’s investigation of conspiracy theories “gives the impression of having some authoritative element.”

    HHS is expected to appoint a special government employee to investigate climate and weather control, according to Gray Delany, former head of the agency’s MAHA agenda, who said he drafted the memo. The agency has interviewed applicants to lead a “chemtrails” task force, said Jim Lee, a blogger focused on weather and climate who Delany said helped edit the memo, which Lee confirmed.

    “HHS does not comment on future or potential policy decisions and task forces,” agency spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an email.

    The memo alleges that “aerosolized heavy metals such as Aluminum, Barium and Strontium, as well as other materials such as sulfuric acid precursors, are sprayed into the atmosphere under the auspices of combatting global warming,” through a process of stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI.

    “There are serious concerns SAI spraying is leading to increased heavy metal content in the atmosphere,” the memo states.

    The memo claims, without providing evidence, that the substances cause elevated heavy-metal content in the atmosphere, soil and waterways, and that aluminum is a toxic product used in SAI linked to dementia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, asthma-like illnesses, and other chronic illnesses. The July 14 memo was addressed to White House health adviser Calley Means, who didn’t respond to a voicemail left by a reporter seeking comment.

    High-level federal government officials are presenting false claims as facts without evidence and referring to events that not only haven’t occurred but, in many cases, are physically impossible, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California.

    “That is a pretty shocking memo,” he said. “It doesn’t get more tinfoil hat. They really believe toxins are being sprayed.”

    Kennedy has previously promoted debunked chemtrail theories. This spring, he was asked on “Dr. Phil Primetime” about chemicals being sprayed into the stratosphere to change the Earth’s climate.

    “It’s done, we think, by DARPA,” Kennedy said, referring to a Department of Defense agency that develops emerging technology for the military’s use. “And a lot of it now is coming out of the jet fuel. Those materials are put in jet fuel. I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it. We’re bringing on somebody who’s going to think only about that.”

    DARPA officials didn’t return a message seeking comment.

    Federal messaging

    Deploying chemtrails to poison people is just one of many baseless conspiracy theories that have found traction among Trump administration health policy officials led by Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before entering politics. He continues to promote a supposed link between vaccines and autism, as well as make statements connecting fluoride in drinking water to arthritis, bone fractures, thyroid disease, and cancer. The World Health Organization says fluoride is safe when used as recommended.

    Delany, who was ousted in August from HHS, said Kennedy has expressed strong interest in chemtrails.

    “This is an issue that really matters to MAHA,” said Delany, referring to the informal movement associated with Kennedy that is composed of people who are skeptical of evidence-based medicine.

    The memo also alleges that “suspicious weather events have been occurring and have increased awareness of the issue to the public, some of which have been acknowledged to have been caused by geoengineering activities, such as the flooding in Dubai in 2024.” Geoengineering refers to intentional large-scale efforts to change the climate to counteract global warming.

    “It is unconscionable that anyone should be allowed to spray known neurotoxins and environmental toxins over our nation’s citizens, their land, food and water supplies,” Delany’s memo states.

    Scientists, meteorologists, and other branches of the federal government say these assertions are largely incorrect. Some points in the memo are accurate, including concerns that commercial aircraft contribute to acid rain.

    But critics say the memo builds on kernels of truth before veering into unscientific fringe theories. Efforts to control the weather are being made, largely by states and local governments seeking to combat droughts, but the results are modest and highly localized. It isn’t possible to manipulate large-scale weather events, scientists say.

    Severe flooding in the United Arab Emirates in 2024 couldn’t have been caused by weather manipulation because no technology could create that kind of rainfall event, Maarten Ambaum, a meteorologist at the University of Reading who studies Gulf region rainfall patterns, said in a statement on the floods. Similar debunked claims emerged this year after central Texas experienced devastating floods.

    The Government Accountability Office concluded in a 2024 report that questions remain as to the effectiveness of weather modification.

    Research into changing the climate has been conducted, including work by one private company that engaged in field tests. Still, federal agencies say no ongoing or large-scale projects are underway. Study of the concept remains in the research phase. The Environmental Protection Agency says there are no large-scale or government efforts to affect the Earth’s climate.

    “Solar geoengineering is not occurring via direct delivery by commercial aircraft and is not associated with aviation contrails,” the agency says on its website.

    Widespread misinformation

    Misperceptions about weather, climate control, and airplane contrails extend beyond the Trump administration, scientists said.

    In September, a congressional House committee hearing titled “Playing God With the Weather — A Disastrous Forecast” involved two hours of debate on the once-fringe idea. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who chaired the hearing, has introduced legislation to ban weather and climate control, with a fine of up to $100,000 and up to five years in prison.

    Some Democrats objected to the nature of the discussion. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., accused Greene of using “the platform of Congress to proffer anti-science theories, to platform climate denialism.”

    Frequently citing chemtrails, GOP lawmakers have introduced legislation in about two dozen states to ban weather modification or geoengineering. Florida passed a bill to establish an online portal so residents can report alleged violations.

    “The Free State of Florida means freedom from governments or private actors unilaterally applying chemicals or geoengineering to people or public spaces,” Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a press statement this spring.

    Meanwhile, the chemtrail conspiracy has permeated popular culture. The title track on singer Lana Del Ray’s seventh studio album is entitled “Chemtrails Over the Country Club.” Bill Maher dove into the chemtrail myth on his podcast “Club Random,” saying, “This is nuts. It’s just nuts.” And “Chemtrails,” a psychological thriller, wrapped filming in July.

    Social media has given wing to the chemtrails concept and other fringe ideas involving public health. They include an outlandish belief that Anthony Fauci, who advised both Trump and President Joe Biden on the government response to the covid-19 pandemic, created the AIDS epidemic. There is no evidence of such a link, public health leaders say.

    Researchers say another false belief by those on the far right holds that people who received covid vaccines could shed the virus, causing infertility in the unvaccinated. There is no evidence of such a connection, scientists and researchers say.

    More severe weather events due to global warming may be driving some of the baseless theories, scientists say. And risks occur when such ideas take hold among the general population or policymakers, some public health leaders say. Climate researchers, including Swain, say they’ve received death threats.

    Lee, the blogger, said he disagrees with some of the more far-fetched beliefs and is aware of the harm they can cause.

    “There are people wanting to shoot down planes because they think they are chemtrails,” said Lee, adding that some believers are afraid to venture outside when plane vapor trails are visible overhead.

    There is also no evidence that plane contrails cause health problems or are related to intentional efforts to control the climate, according to the EPA and other scientists.

    The memo and focus at HHS on climate and weather control are alarming because they perpetuate conspiracies, said David Keith, a professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago.

    “It’s unmoored to reality,” he said. “I expected there were documents like this, but seeing it in print is nevertheless shocking. Our government is being driven by nonsensical dreck from dark corners of social media.”

    This article first appeared on KFF Health News.

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  • Vaccine Injuries, Violent Video Games, and Infertility Challenge: RFK Jr. Releases New MAHA ‘Strategy’ Report for Children

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    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a new “strategy” report from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, outlining how the Trump administration wants to improve the health of American children. Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who doesn’t believe in germ theory, has been destroying faith in America’s public health system since he was confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

    Unlike MAHA’s first report back in May, the new report doesn’t include any fake studies that are cited. But that’s because the new report released Tuesday doesn’t cite any studies at all. Kennedy has completely hollowed out expertise at agencies like the FDA and CDC, which he oversees, through recent actions like firing CDC Director Susan Monarez, leading to a massive exodus of people who believe in science.

    The new strategy report identifies four areas the MAHA commission believes are “behind the rise in childhood chronic disease,” including poor diet, chemical exposure, overmedication, and a lack of physical exercise combined with chronic stress. The report calls for further research into childhood vaccines, fluoride, and physical activity, among other topics.

    As with all things MAHA, there is a mix of very real concerns about the health of Americans, combined with fringe ideas about what to do about it. There’s a particular emphasis in the report on “conflicts of interest,” a worthwhile topic of discussion when it comes to the revolving door of government regulators and drug companies. But Kennedy’s solution to potential conflicts of interest has been to fire real experts on things like vaccines in order to replace them with charlatans who are selling their own questionable alternative therapies.

    The future of vaccines

    The new report calls for developing a framework on vaccines that’s filled with all kinds of red flags for anyone who can read between the lines. The report says the framework will focus on:

    • Ensuring America has the best childhood vaccine schedule;
    • Addressing vaccine injuries;
    • Modernizing American vaccines with transparent, gold-standard science;
    • Correcting conflicts of interest and misaligned incentives; and
    • Ensuring scientific and medical freedom.

    “Over 99% of vaccine injuries go unreported,” Kennedy said at a press conference on Tuesday without providing any evidence for his claim.

    The government announced changes to covid-19 vaccine recommendations on Aug. 27 that will restrict who’s able to get the shot. The CDC only recommends the shot for people aged 65 and older, as well as those at higher risk of complications from getting covid-19. And we’re already seeing various states restricting who can get the shot.

    Guns, screen time, social media, and video games

    During the press conference, Kennedy was asked about guns and the public health issues they pose. He claimed there was a “sudden onset of violence” in the 1990s that he didn’t see as a kid—the kind of nostalgia he often engages in when it comes to food quality and various conditions like autism.

    “It could be a connection with video games, social media, and we are looking at that,” Kennedy said, also stating that he was looking at “overmedication of kids” as another cause of mass shootings.

    The report also mentions that the Surgeon General will launch an educational campaign about the effect of screen time on children and “actions being taken by states to limit screentime at school.” The U.S. doesn’t have a Senate-confirmed Surgeon General right now. President Trump withdrew his nominee for the position, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, in May over questions about her credentials. And then he nominated Casey Means, a wellness influencer who hasn’t yet faced hearings from the Senate for her confirmation.

    Means doesn’t currently have a medical license and started a company called Levels that sells a wearable for monitoring glucose levels. There’s no reason for someone who isn’t diabetic to be monitoring their glucose levels, but Kennedy has previously said that he wants all Americans to be sporting a wearable.

    Sperm counts

    The report also includes a section on fertility, with Secretary Kennedy claiming early in the press conference on Tuesday that, “Our young men have sperm counts that are half what they ought to be.”

    From the report:

    HHS will launch a MAHA education campaign to improve health and fertility in women and men looking to start a family. This will influence adolescent health through early adoption of lifestyles that help avoid the development of root cause issues that impact adult fertility in the 20s, 30s, and 40s.

    • The HHS Root Causes of Infertility Award Challenge Competition, a national call to action to address the root causes of infertility and improve maternal and infant health outcomes. This initiative seeks to identify new and existing solutions to prevent, diagnose, and treat root causes of infertility, including chronic reproductive health conditions, and provide answers to families, improve health outcomes, and ensure a brighter future for parents and infants across the U.S.

    • HHS will develop a partnership to create an Infertility Training Center to serve and train Title X clinics to identify, treat, and refer for the underlying causes of infertility, such as chronic reproductive health conditions.

    It’s unclear what the “Root Causes of Infertility Award Challenge Competition” will entail exactly, but given the far right’s obsession with birth rates among white people right now, it’s sure to be something dystopian.

    Criticism from allies over the report

    Some of Kennedy’s traditional left-leaning allies are not happy with the new MAHA strategy report, which had leaked in a rough form last month before its final release. Critics believe the health industry had too much influence on its strategy conclusions, and Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit that sued the EPA over the fluoridation of water, released a statement Tuesday that was highly critical of Kennedy’s plan.

    “The MAHA Commission report is a gift to Big Ag. Its deregulatory proposals read like an industry wish list. The truth is, industrial agriculture is making us sick. Making America healthy again will require confronting Big Ag corporations head on — instead, the Trump administration has capitulated,” Food & Water Watch senior food policy analyst Rebecca Wolf said in a statement.

    The report doesn’t call for a ban on various pesticides, instead saying it will launch a “partnership with private-sector innovators to ensure continued investment in new approaches and technologies to allow even more targeted and precise pesticide applications.” And that also seemed to anger some activists who believe Kennedy is just bowing down to powerful corporate interests.

    “The MAHA Commission report is most notable for what it lacks: any real action on toxic pesticides linked to rising cancer rates nationwide. Meanwhile, Trump’s allies in Congress are considering dangerous legislation to make it all worse. The White House’s feigned concern for our health is too little, too late — its weak response to the public health crisis we face will not stand,” wrote Food & Water Watch.

    Where do we go from here?

    What’s next for the MAHA gang? Kennedy has promised to announce the “cause” of autism at some point this month. And whatever report they produce will more than likely be tainted by Kennedy’s army of anti-vaccine advocates and MAHA kooks. But amidst it all, Kennedy still continues to insist he’s not against vaccines, even while he gets in front of Congress and insists vaccines haven’t been properly studied, a ridiculous lie.

    It’s only going to get weirder from here on out.

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    Matt Novak

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  • Raw milk debates are turning sour in Florida

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    In the fall of 2024, I predicted that America might be on the brink of having its “raw milk moment” given now Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s political elevation. Since then, hardly a week has passed without unpasteurized milk making headlines across the country. A recent bacterial outbreak in Florida has now heightened the controversy and further solidified raw milk’s central role in America’s broiling culture wars.

    The Florida Department of Health (DOH) issued a press release in early August detailing a campylobacter and E. coli outbreak in the Sunshine State. Officials alerted that “there have been 21 cases since January 24, 2025, including six children under the age of 10, and seven hospitalizations linked to consumption of raw milk.” The DOH explicitly identified Keely Farms Dairy, a small family farm, as the source of the outbreak.

    Weeks later, a Florida woman, represented by a self-described “national food poisoning law firm,” filed suit against Keely Farms, alleging that its raw milk caused her two-year-old son to contract a bacterial infection and fall ill. The woman further alleges that she fell ill herself and developed sepsis, which eventually led to the loss of her pregnancy.

    The details from the lawsuit are heartbreaking, but the more we learn about the situation surrounding Keely Farms, the more bizarre the story becomes. Despite DOH’s definitive declaration that Keely Farms was the source of the bacterial outbreak, it was later found that the agency had reached this conclusion despite not conducting a single test at the farm, nor alerting the farm that it was under investigation. In a Facebook post, Keely Farms said that the department’s press release “blindsided” them. (The DOH’s press release stated that it would “continue working with Keely Farms Dairy,” insinuating that the relevant parties had been working together throughout.)

    Confusing things further, Keely Farms was recently inspected by the Florida Department of Agriculture. “We passed, as always,” Keely Farms posted.

    Selling raw milk for human consumption is illegal in Florida. As a result, milk that has not been pasteurized—the process of heating the liquid to a specific temperature for five to 30 seconds to kill harmful bacteria—can only be sold for livestock feed. Keely Farms’ raw milk was appropriately labeled as “not for human consumption,” meaning that the 21 Floridians who allegedly drank the farm’s milk (and those who also gave it to their children) chose to do so despite this warning.

    It’s unclear how the current litigation involving Keely Farms will ultimately play out, although it’s likely that more follow-on suits will be filed, using the DOH’s press release as evidentiary fodder. 

    Politico recently noted that raw milk has gone from “the darling of the organic liberals, deserving of sympathetic coverage…to the conservative culture war signal that is a sweetheart of deep-red state legislatures.” This is on display in Florida. Despite the DOH targeting Keely Farms for its raw milk, Florida’s Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo—an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the head of the DOH—recently expressed support for human consumption of raw milk in a social media post. 

    On the other hand, Florida’s agriculture commissioner, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, has encouraged Floridians to only drink pasteurized milk, citing the dangers of raw milk. This means that the head of the Florida agency that targeted Keely Farms’ raw milk products is unexpectedly pro-raw milk, while the head of the state agency that inspected and greenlighted Keely Farms’ operations is against raw milk.

    This confusion highlights how raw milk has become a political flashpoint. The state health agency blamed Keely Farms while skipping basic investigative steps, the agriculture department cleared the farm, and their leaders publicly contradicted their own agencies.

    When policy decisions are filtered through the lens of culture wars, the result is not clarity or safety but a muddle of mixed signals. Floridians are left unsure whether raw milk is a health risk, a personal freedom, or just another pawn in America’s endless red vs. blue standoff.

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    C. Jarrett Dieterle

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